4 2018 STATE OF BLACK AMERICA®UNDERSTANDING THE 2018 EQUALITY INDEX™WHY DOES THE NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE PUBLISH AN EQUALITY INDEX™? Economic empowerment is the central theme of the National Urban League’s mission. The Equality Index gives us a way to document progress toward this mission for Black and Hispanic Americans relative to whites. WHAT IS THE EQUALITY INDEX TRYING TO DO?Imagine if we were to summarize how well African Americans and Hispanics are doing compared to whites in the areas of economics, health, education, social justice and civic engagement and represent that by a pie. The Equality Index measures the share of that pie which African Americans and Hispanics get. Whites are used as the benchmark because the history of race in America has created advantages for whites that continue to persist in many of the outcomes being measured.THE 2018 EQUALITY INDEX OF BLACK AMERICA IS 72.5%. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?That means that rather than having a whole pie (100%), which would mean full equality with whites in 2018, African Americans are missing about 28% of the pie (Figure 1A). Similarly, a Hispanic Index of 79.3% indicates that about 21% of the pie is missing for Hispanics (Figure 1B). HOW IS THE EQUALITY INDEX CALCULATED?The categories that make up the Equality Index are economics, health, education, social justice and civic engagement. In each category, we use nationally representative statistics to calculate a sub-index that captures how well African Americans and Hispanics are doing relative to whites. Each category is weighted, based on the importance that we give to each. The weighted average of all five categories is then calculated to get the total Equality Index. IS IT POSSIBLE TO SEE HOW WELL AFRICAN AMERICANS AND HISPANICS ARE DOING IN EACH OF THE CATEGORIES?Yes. We show this in the tables included with the Equality Index. We estimate an index for each category that can be interpreted in the same way as the total Equality Index. So, an index of 58.2% for the economics category for African Americans in 2018 means that African Americans are missing close to half of the economics mini-pie. Figure 1A and Figure 1B summarize the total 2018 Equality Index and the index in each category for African Americans and Hispanics.IS IT POSSIBLE TO SEE HOW WELL AFRICAN AMERICANS AND HISPANICS ARE DOING OVER TIME?Yes. The National Urban League has published the Equality Index of Black America and all the variables used to calculate it annually since 2005. The Hispanic Equality Index goes back to 2010 (Figure 2B). The Black Equality Indices for 2005 (the first year) and 2018 (the current year) are shown in Figure 2A.IT DOESN’T LOOK LIKE THERE’S BEEN MUCH IMPROVEMENT IN THE EQUALITY INDEX. WHAT’S THE POINT? Since the Equality Index is made up of a lot of different parts, improvements in one area are sometimes offset by losses in another area, leaving the overall index unchanged. Change often happens slowly. The Equality Index offers solid evidence of just how slowly it happens, making the index an important tool for driving the policies needed in the ongoing fight against inequality. NOT ALL AFRICAN AMERICANS ARE DOING POORLY AND NOT ALL WHITES ARE DOING WELL. WHY DOESN’T THE EQUALITY INDEX CAPTURE CLASS DIFFERENCES? The national Equality Index was created to capture racial inequality. Most of the data points are reported as averages for African Americans, whites and Hispanics. An average is the easiest way to summarize a large amount of information but can mask class differences within each group. While the Equality Index does not detail class differences, it does highlight regional differences in racial inequality through our rankings of metro area unemployment and income inequality (not included this year, but available for prior years).
< Page 3 | Page 5 >